This is only the first step in what is likely to be a long and arduous process. But let?s leave the nitty gritty of the document to the army of lawyers, managers, government officials and activists that are undoubtedly leaving no syllable unturned in assessing the legal, business and fundamental rights ramifications of what the Commission is proposing.

Yesterday Facebook changed the game for businesses who maintain physical presences across the country with the release of Facebook Deals. Suddenly, Facebook users have a reason to check-in to places. For those business owners who aren?t clear on what opportunities Facebook Deals provides, here?s a comprehensive guide.

Technorati?s have just published the first part of their ?State of the Blogosphere 2010? report. Some 7,200 bloggers responded to their survey this year ? this is their largest response ever. The survey was administered in English however bloggers responded from 24 countries, with nearly half from the United States.

The Berkman Center is pleased to announce that the final draft of its independent review of accountability and transparency at ICANN has been posted by the ICANN Accountability and Transparency Review Team (ATRT); see Draft Proposed Recommendations for Public Comment.

A MEDIALENS ALERT.PART 1 – THE SMEAR?Journalists don’t like WikiLeaks?, Hugo Rifkind notes in The Times, but ?the people who comment online under articles do… Maybe you’ve noticed, and been wondering why. I certainly have.? (Hugo Rifkind Notebook, ?Remind me. It’s the red one I mustn’t press, right?,? The Times, October 26, 2010)

The publication of a huge tranche of United States military-communications records in Iraq by the WikiLeaks project on 22 October 2010 has rightly been greeted as a major event. The 392,000 documents in the so-called ?Iraq war logs? provide a wealth of information about the realities of the years since the war was launched in March 2003. The result is to promise a significant shift in understandings and perceptions of the war.

The newest search engine on the block has been described as the offspring of an imaginary union between Google and Wikipedia. There is no such union (at this point), but Blekko exists in beta version, and it seems to hold a lot of promise.